A real cliffhanger loomed over the soap opera Emmys when they came to Los Angeles for the first time ever on Friday night, arriving at the Kodak Theater basking gleefully in the aura of the Oscars' venue. Can the move from New York revitalize the TV awards that sometimes seem to be as endangered as Luke's comatose son on "General Hospital"?

Last year the Emmycast plunged to 7.6 million viewers, down from 8.3 million the previous year and 18.8 million in 1991, which is when daytime's TV kudos first aired in primetime. Back in the 1990s the Daytime Emmycast was so popular that it sometimes beat the primetime show in the Nielsens, but that was before Susan Lucci finally won in 1999 and back before broadcast TV ratings collapsed and before soaps lost half of their viewership in the aftermath of saturation TV coverage of a real soap opera — the O.J. Simpson trial.

Last Friday the Emmy scene at the Kodak sure appeared resuscitated and joyfully off its respirator. There were so many crazed cheering fans and hungry paparazzi hovering over the red carpet that Hollywood Boulevard had to be shut down, just like it does at the Oscars. Obviously, ABC and sponsors invested hugely in the event, which included an awardcast first: a new "fan zone" situated outside in a circular courtyard dominated by a stage where Rick Springfield sang and a large TV screen showed a live feed of the goings-on inside.

The TV screen caused a scandal as the stars arrived. Fans didn't understand what they'd seen on it earlier as producers faked award results and acceptance speeches during rehearsals. A rumor spread fast along the red carpet that there was a tie for best actress. It wasn't unthinkable that vote results could really leak out ahead of time. Back in the 1980s a New York tabloid published the full list of winners prior to the show and actually sold copies of its issue to nominees as they walked into the Emmy ceremony.

When jittery best actress nominee Kim Zimmer heard the rumor, she freaked. Oddsmakers had the "Guiding Light" star in a close race with Susan Flannery of "The Bold and the Beautiful," who was ahead of Zimmer in terms of previous wins by a score of 4 to 3.

"Oh, great!" Zimmer harrumphed at the thought of sharing. "That's all I need!"

Susan Lucci was much more cool as she arrived, relieved not to be nominated this year.

"I now have lots of new respect for the Los Angeles actors who came to New York every year for the Daytime Emmys," she said. "When packing, you better not forget anything!"

I asked her if she'd done anything touristy while visiting L.A.

"I recently got my star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — just outside the Kodak," she noted. "The other day I snuck over there to check it out and, you know, make sure it wasn't a dream."

In Lucci's line of work, that's a major worry.

The Emmycast got a good reaction from journalists watching backstage, who seemed impressed by the show's stylized graphics and bouncy pace. Award results were exciting, too, especially "General Hospital's" upset over "Young & the Restless" as best drama series ("GH" is now the biggest winner of that award — nine times) and "Guiding Light's" surprising romp through the acting races.

Among award losses, one seemed ominous: Martha Stewart's defeat to Suze Orman as best host of a service TV show. Martha and her syndicated series "Living" used to sweep the Daytime Emmys: "Living" won best service show six times in the past seven years. Martha was favored to win the host's prize last year, too, which she could've welcomed on national TV as an expression of industry support just days before she went to jail, but she lost. This year when Martha lost both awards for her new syndicated program that's struggling in the ratings, a media wag said backstage, "Looks like Martha's goose is cooked."

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Photo: Sibila Vargas does a report from the red carpet for CNN, part of the increased media coverage the Daytime Emmys received this year by moving to L.A.
(L.A. Times photo by Tom O'Neil)

A few weeks ago three-time Emmy champ Kim Zimmer of "Guiding Light" told Soap Opera Weekly that, if she wins again this year, she'll withdraw her name from award consideration in the future.

Soon after her fourth triumph tonight, she was asked by journalist Nelson Branco if she meant it. Daytime TV divas are a notoriously fickle lot, so it was an excellent question.

"Yes, I meant it!" she replied firmly, then did a nervous backstep. "Well, it depends . . . I'll see how things go. The reason I would do it is because there are about five great actresses on the show who deserve to move up to the lead race and I should probably get out of the way. But I'll just have to watch and see how they do on the show this year. Um, I don't know . . . ."

"Admit it, Rosie. You got cranky for a while," a brave reporter asked Rosie O'Donnell backstage at the Daytime Emmys. "Are you still cranky?"

Rosie paused, pondered the question and smiled graciously. "That was a very good choice of words," she said. "I'm not offended, but you've made your point. Yes, I got cranky for a while."

Now, after four years of semi-retirement, she feels invigorated and is looking forward to her next gig on "The View." Curiously, she did not shoot down the rumor that she's itching for a fight with Star Jones ahead. "That's what makes good TV!" she said chirpily as her producer Barbara Walters stood beside her, looking a bit nervous.

Walters, by the way, revealed how she picked Rosie for the job as cohost. The idea suddenly occurred to her when she attended the premiere of Rosie and partner Kelli O'Donnell's HBO documentary — "All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise" — about the first-ever family cruise for gay and lesbian families. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Rosie had been a frequent guest on "The View" through the years and demonstrated lively chemistry while bantering with the catty clique. Furthermore, Barbara wanted to work with an old friend. They've been such close pals over time that Rosie once gave Barbara one of her paintings.

"Barbara even hung it up in her house!" Rosie boomed proudly. "When I give my paintings to other friends, they usually say 'Thanks!' and toss them in the trash later."

But Rosie's hiring is controversial and a big risk because Rosie, let's face it, is such a big mouth with a bossy nature that may not gel well with the spirit of camaradie that seals the show's appeal when that clique clicks — that is, stops bickering. Rosie isn't just joining the program as another one of the girls. She's filling Meredith Vieira's chair as moderator. Meredith wasn't a hothead like Star Jones and Joy Behar and knew how to keep the peace when mayhem broke loose. Rosie specializes in making mayhem.

Back in the days when Rosie was still, admittedly, ahem, cranky she was really much worse than that. Her coworkers blatantly called her a "bitch." I was a contributor to Rosie's magazine and can tell you that every staff editor I dealt with had nothing kind to say about her and lots of unkind things to volunteer.

"She's a screamer," one editor told me. "Rosie rules by fear, threats and insults. She berates us and tells us we're idiots — usually at the top of her lungs. Lucky for us she doesn't come into the office very often. We usually just have to deal with her nasty emails and abusive phone calls, but when we hear that Rosie's coming in, we dread it. Everyone's always looking for another job and, when one of us gets one, we go out to celebrate."

Whenever I ran into Rosie's TV producers around New York, I heard the same shameful refrain. "Sure, Rosie's known as the Queen of Nice," one of them once told me, scowling. "But that's b.s. She's really the Queen of Mean. She treats us like dogs. If the public only really knew what she's like!"

I have a hunch — and a hope — that Rosie has been humbled somewhat by the past four years of failures, which included the demise of a once-hot TV show and a Broadway flop (she lost $10 million on "Taboo"). Even worse, Rosie Magazine wasn't just a dud. It killed off one of America's great publications — McCall's, which was foolishly shut down by publisher Gruner + Jahr so its subscription base could be used to launch Rosie's vanity project that was supposed to become as successful as the mags of other daytime TV divas Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey.

But many staffers insisted that Rosie knew nothing about magazine publishing and refused to listen to them when they begged her not to put her friends on the covers of issues that sometimes bombed on the newsstand. Desperate to reverse the skyrocketing financial losses, Gruner + Jahr CEO Dan Brewster tried to invoke a clause in Rosie's contract that seemed to say that Rosie must yield editorial control in the last few weeks of each issue's production schedule. Bullheaded Rosie fought back, pulling out of the deal, claiming "my integrity and name are at stake, and that price is too high. I cannot have my name on a magazine if I cannot be assured that it will represent my vision and ideas."

The $100 million legal smackdown that ensued resulted in the total collapse of Gruner + Jahr, which once reigned as a top media firm, publishers of Family Circle, Fitness and Parents, all of which were sold off when the company folded.

Rosie won the lawsuit, but lost the respect of many media leaders and fans when her dark side came to light during the trial. The mag's top editor Susan Toepfer testified that Rosie was a tyrant who'd "scream and yell obscenities." The worst point came when another staffer, a cancer survivor, broke down in tears on the witness stand as she recalled being taunted in the office one day by Rosie, who said, snidely, "You're lying. You know what happens to people who lie? They get sick and they get cancer. If they keep lying, they get it again."

Rosie admitted she said that, but insisted she apologized afterward. She also did not deny that she often acted combatively toward her staff. Apparently, the office tension got so fierce that, when Rosie announced she was quitting the company, an editor sent out an email suggesting the staff "do a 'ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead' song and dance."

So, yeah, it's clear that Rosie was once rather "cranky." Has she changed? Rosie didn't go that far in her response to questions from the press backstage at the Daytime Emmys. Rather, she made it clear she's looking forward, while sitting in "The View's" moderator chair, to future battles with Star and Joy.

Hmmmm. When did you ever think you'd feel sorry for Star?

Photo: O'Donnell nixed this cover of Rosie Magazine in 2002, refusing to be pictured in between two popular stars of "The Sopranos." Instead, she pressed her staff to run a cover of convicted rapist Mike Tyson and his daughter, but Rosie lost out when her editors rebelled. Such infighting ultimately killed off the magazine entirely and resulted in the demise of parent company Gruner + Jahr, which was once one of America's biggest publishers.
(Gruner + Jahr)

"I would say 'no'!" Ellen DeGeneres insisted when asked backstage if she'd agree to host the Oscars. "It's such a thankless job. If you do great, nobody mentions it. If you don't, everyone complains. It's a lot of work."

Then she smiled coyly and said, "Cut to me next year hosting . . . "

Call it "As the Soap Turns." Looks like "As the World Turns" just broke "Guiding Light's" winning romp through the acting categories. Many viewers at home may not have caught the full impact of the peak moment of Jennifer Landon's acceptance speech — when she wrapped up, saying "to my poppa, thanks!"

Jennifer's poppa was Michael Landon, who died in 1991. Thus he didn't get a chance to witness his daughter's success as an actress. Jennifer just started on the show a year and a half ago as a recurring player. Now she's an Emmy-winning fixture.

I just asked her backstage how her father might regard her win tonight. Did he approve of his children becoming actors?

"He supported us in whatever we felt passionate about," she said. "I think he'd be happy for me tonight."

Wow, so far "Guiding Light" has swept every acting award: actress (Kim Zimmer), supporting actor (Jordan Clarke), supporting actress (Gina Tognoni), younger actor (Tom Pelphrey), but lost writing and directing, alas, so it isn't quite a one-show romp.

"Yea! 'Guiding Light' is cleaning up tonight!" Clarke just roared to us backstage.

"What fun is there answering that?" Tom Pelphrey just told us slyly when plugged with questions backstage about how much longer he plans to stick around on "Guiding Light" now that he's won an Emmy. "I'm gonna be around for a while," he added. "I really love where I work and that's why I want to stay." He recently signed a new contract, but refused to reveal how long it covers.

Pelphrey did make this startling revelation: he doesn't watch himself on TV very often. "I don't have TIVO," he said. "I used to watch myself a lot when I first started out on the show because I hadn't done much acting in front of a camera and I wanted to see how I was doing. Now I don't watch very often."

Backstage reporters just asked Ellen how it felt to have the freedom to acknowledge her partner Portia de Rossi in her acceptance speech with the words "Portia, I love you!"

"I'm just happy to be able to tell someone that I love them," Ellen said after her Emmy moment, beaming.

Rumor has it that NBC leans heavily on Ellen not to make public mentions of Portia on her chat show, fearing the kind of backlash that probably contributed to the end of her reign in primetime in 1998. One year after the star came out as a lesbian on "Ellen," her series had plunged so far in the ratings that it was cancelled.

How did winning this year feel compared to last year? "Good," she replied, "but I'm not hysterical like I was last year. When I won both the awards for hosting and best show I was sobbing. Two years ago I just won for show, not hosting."

This Fan Zone that Ellen just entered in the upper outdoors courtyard of Hollywood and Highland complex is a new concept on award shows. And an interesting one. So far it seems to be clumsy, but let's give it more time. It's a big, circular arena filled with fan seats in a small audience before a stage where Rick Springfield sang a few minutes ago. Winners are instructed to go there first before they head backstage to visit us in the press room. But what are winners are supposed to say there?

Why was Ellen DeGeneres' acceptance speech so ho-hum, eh? It's not as if everyone on the planet didn't know she was going to win best talk host, a category that always goes to solo hosts. Ellen was the only solo host nommed in the category this year. That's what Tom Bergeron meant by joshing with "The View" gals in front row right after they lost. The gals have been pointing out this Emmy trivia fluke for weeks, preparing themselves for the inevitable tonight.